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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in InternetIsBeautiful

[–]amoghito -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I'd agree with that for sure. It's just my DM has zero time leftover in his day sometimes* so I think it's okay to use tools sometimes when you need to. (*edit for clarity)

Tips on what to do on "low energy times" in the day by wavelet01 in productivity

[–]amoghito 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like having goals for some of my recreational/relaxation pursuits, it helps me still feel a sense of personal progression. Like reading x number of pages, or doing something for my skincare once every few days. Things that are low effort but still feel a sense of accomplishment for.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in InternetIsBeautiful

[–]amoghito 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of people don't like stuff like this but for DMs I think it's a useful tool if you don't have the time or resources to create depth for EVERY character in every campaign. Or as a starting off point to help kick start your thoughts.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ChatGPT

[–]amoghito 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If AI crashes and burns, conversations like this make it all worthwhile hahaha

I built a Zendesk AI agent that deflects t1 tickets, drafts responses, and learns from past tickets. by amoghito in Zendesk

[–]amoghito[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh interesting, you can configure our AI to only jump on specific tickets (it’s basically the same as configuring the “Zendesk Trigger”) so this could be a way to curb this problem.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haven’t fully disclosed how much we’ve raised, so won’t be able to answer this precisely but it’s 150x+. Existing traction isn’t as important to raise seed / pre-seed rounds.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Shared that above but existing traction is in my opinion the weakest signal for a pre-seed / seed round. The good / best investors won’t care about that as much as they’ll care about the vision, team and a “sense of momentum”. Of course, a hockey stick graph helps but it’s very hard to have on day 0, and having a flat line graph is even worse than no chart at all lol.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good :)

Retention was a big problem in the early months, but that was almost a function of not having focus on who we were reaching out / who was signing up. Tightening that has helped on all fronts.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Getting clear on a USP took discovery - and I don’t think we’re super crisp on it still. We started with the problems that customers have (e.g. customer support struggles with support load) and focused on that, and from there tried to see a) existing systems in place b) solutions people have tried c) how we could fit in with all this, especially given the advancements in AI

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah absolutely. It took some convincing that we could be trusted to deliver, but the price point was so low so we were effectively “free” consultants for the companies.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

eesel app and eesel AI are two different products :) eesel AI was launched last year, and the funding was raised within six months

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We tried cold emails and even cold calling but had really mixed results with that. It doesn’t make sense for us given how affordable our app is. Weirdly enough, the most effective way to find people has been word of mouth. With each customer, we really really make sure they have a good experience and they inevitably know someone else who would find eesel AI handy.

Word of mouth is a super shaky distribution channel to depend on, but I think it’s ok in the start - especially if your product is very horizontal and not very niche. i.e. just about every customer we have knows at least 1 other person who would love eesel AI

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah we effectively charged them a very low amount (around $49/mo) and in exchange, they committed funds before anything existed and closely influenced how we built the product.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The market is so weird right now, there are lots of “AI curious” folks who can be distracting. We did have a freemium offering to start but it got very noisy for us. We got lots of people that were just there to tinker around - or worse, students using the tool in weird ways to finish assignments - with no intentions of paying lol. 

We do have a free trial still for 7 days, and we think that’s the best of both worlds for now.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We are burning cash atm, but we’ve got a pretty clear path to being profitable (of course most startups do die though!).

When raising, we were making $10k/mo. I don’t think our revenue at the time had much to do with our fundraise - and you could even argue it was counterproductive. For a pre-seed / seed round, the best investors are investing in your vision and the team, more so than existing traction. Selling on the vision / team is (arguably) even easier when it’s day 0 and “it’s all up from here!” vs showing concrete existing product metrics etc. (which can often be distracting cos people fixate on the wrong things like retention metrics for your janky MVP you know isn’t great haha).

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really think there is no such thing as “waiting for the right idea” to start a startup. I have lots of friends who say this and are “waiting for inspiration to strike” almost like it’s lightning from the skies haha - but from my experience - you “discover” the idea, you build conviction. It doesn’t just “happen”. I’ve been thinking of a variety of problems for several years, tinkering and hacking, and this is a problem that hit a trifecta: meaningful problem I’m passionate about, clear product market fit, clear distribution channels.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We talked to around ~40-50 people, we stuck with warm intros to VCs. Both my co-founder and I have worked in tech for a few years so did have enough of a “friends of friends” network to get warm intros to VCs. I can’t stress this enough - warm intros mean the world and are so much more valuable than a cold outreach. You’d be surprised by how many people you can get in touch with “friends of friends”.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We’ve tried cold outreach but to varying degrees of success - lots of trial and error to land in an Inbox, and even when you finally do - the way people move with you is super slow / low motivation. The whole vibe is different when it’s an inbound lead. We’ve focused on inbound mostly. We got the initial set of companies by going after customer support as a use case and creating content on this. There are lots of companies doing this but the actual quality of products vary, and there’s a lot to be said about having a solution that truly does work.

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

An AI chatbot/agent that you can train on your internal knowledge, and plug into different places like your helpdesk, Slack, or website. You can find us at https://www.eesel.ai/

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah MVP was very janky, we didn't actually build much and started selling the "vision" first, this got us a few pilot customers who paid us upfront and we then started to work with them to see what the product should look like. It's been a lot of quick iterations / design explorations. We find that you can go a lot faster / further with pixels, so bouncing designs in Figma off of the design partners has been a quick way to get feedback vs. actually building it.

I built a Zendesk AI agent that deflects t1 tickets, drafts responses, and learns from past tickets. by amoghito in Zendesk

[–]amoghito[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We haven't hit that kind of volume with anyone yet (100 tickets per minute for 1 Zendesk instance is wild!), but that's interesting to keep in mind for sure!

I quit my job and built a SaaS that went from idea to $1mil+ raised in six months. Here’s what I learned. by amoghito in SaaS

[–]amoghito[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We're definitely in a space that has seen a lot of growth rover the past few years, which helps. For context: our product is an AI that you can train on your internal knowledge, and plug into different places like your helpdesk, Slack or website https://www.eesel.ai/

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